422 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
gradually, and that chiefly when the sun is gaining 
strength, taking care that this excitement should act 
more upon the part of the cutting in the soil than on 
the part above it. No greater cause of failure can 
exist, than at all times, and in all circumstances, trans¬ 
ferring cuttings into a hotbed. Many fail to get green¬ 
house and even bedding plants to strike in summer and 
autumn from this cause alone. In no case should they 
have a much higher temperature than the plants stood 
in until a callus is formed, and the protrusion of tissue 
lias taken place. Nay, many things, in autumn, will 
strike better when kept cooler, such as being transferred 
from a south border to a north one. Few things at 
that time will stand the excitement of extra heat. The 
sun is losing its force, and vegetation is not expanding, 
but accumulating for its winter repose, and we must 
act accordingly, until when callused we excite the 
cuttings to root when we are in a hurry. Patience 
given as to time would neutralise many failures. 
Even in spring the extra heat we give should be some¬ 
thing proportionate to the season, and to what the plant 
formerly enjoyed. When, therefore, we are in a hurry, 
the best plan is gradually to give the plant an extra 
excitement first. Many things will stand extra heat 
without this precaution, but many will not; and all 
will be healthier in consequence. Besides, the extreme 
of dispatch in rooting, even in spring, is not always the 
extreme of advantage. I have rooted Calceolarias, in 
March, in fewer days than they required weeks in 
October, and onwards; but, if they had been struck 
cooler, they would have required less hardening off, and 
been less liable to insects and weakly constitutions. 
“ But bow are we to keep a growing cutting healthy, 
and get it to root, without giving it an exciting stimulus? 
Will not the light and air rob it of its juices when its 
severance from the root renders a supply naturally im¬ 
possible ?” Quite right. But how is this extra heat, the 
stumbling-stone of young propagators, to remedy the 
evil ? Will not the extra heat just stimulate the per¬ 
spiring processes, and thus welt your cuttings; or, if that 
is prevented by a close atmosphere and shading, will they 
not become wire drawn and attenuated? I have instanced 
a Vine-cutting in heat. Take the case of a ripened 
shoot of a Currant tree inserted in the ground in au¬ 
tumn. If the ground, as a whole, has been warmer than 
the atmosphere, you will get roots before you get shoots. 
If you left a bud at the base of the cutting, that would 
be expanded before those exposed to the atmosphere. 
If tho atmosphere was the warmest, it would be the 
reverse. Generally, they are so alike in average tempe¬ 
rature, that the bursting of the buds and the rooting 
proceeds almost cotemporaneously. But cut off a grow¬ 
ing shoot in summer, and place it in a sunny place, and 
whore would it be next morning? But cover it with a 
glass, give it a moist atmosphere, keep its leaves moist, 
and shade from bright sunshine ; and, by a very round¬ 
about way, you would obtain a nice-rooted plant. 
Now, with slight differences, the same modes and 
principles must be adojffed with all tender cuttings 
taken from growing plants. Let us merely mention a 
few of them. 1. 1 he cutting should be maintained in 
healthy action; whenever it flags, it will be so much 
time lost. 2. Increase of temperature, if moderate, will 
give an additional stimulus to the vital powers; a great 
rise will debilitate the system, and cause extension up¬ 
wards instead of downwards. The increased heat 
should be made to tell chiefly on the base of the cutting. 
4. The soil in which cuttings are placed should be 
firm, and the surface a dampish silver sand, next 
to impervious to air; or the soil should be rather loose, 
however the surface be covered, in proportion as the 
cuttings are hard-stemmed or rather succulent. 5. The 
sun, by the too rapid fixation of carbon in the cutting, 
the air and heat, by carrying-off its moisture, would, 
March 2. j 
if permitted, soon leave a wreck behind; and we, in J 
the first place, keep the cutting in healthy action by ; 
neutralizing their influence. We keep it from access to 
air by means of a frame, or bell-glass; and, if at all 
tender, most likely by both; and wc keep the sun off j 
by shading, or causing its rays to be diffused before 
reaching it. Then, secondly, we do not merely keep in j 
view that the whole surface of the cutting is a trans- 1 
piling medium, we make it also an absorbing one, by 
surrounding it with an atmosphere saturated with 
vapour, and by frequent dewings of the stem and 
foliage—a much better plan than frequent soakings of 
the soil in which the cuttings are placed, and escaping 
the decomposition of the base ends, often the conse¬ 
quence of these soakiDgs. But, fithly, if the air is 
long confined, such as under a bell-glass, and especially 
if there is the smallest bit of fading leaf, the atmo¬ 
sphere will become impure, and, then, when placed near 
the glass, though shading from sun be necessary, 
yet every moment’s shade more than the cutting 
actually requires will act as a drawing and debili¬ 
tating influence. The best chance of rooting consist¬ 
ing in the cutting absorbing and decomposing for 
itself fresh organisable matter, which it can only do 
in light, suggested two practices—the first, after a few 
days, when bell-glasses were kept close down, tilting 
them up a little on one side at night, which purified 
the air, and if conical glasses were used, rendered 
all the trouble of glass-wiping in the morning a 
thing of the olden times ; and, secondly, keeping 
the cuttings, whether under glasses or the re¬ 
verse, at such a distance from the glass that the 
rays of the sun were too diffused to hurt them before 
reaching them, while the bother and uncertainty of 
shading were completely avoided. This idea I received, 
some seventeen years ago, from Mr. Caie, who, from 
practising it, was one of the most successful propagators 
at that time round London. I have acted on it ever 
since. 
At present, I have several lights of cuttings now 
striking, consisting of Calceolarias, Petunias, Verbenas, 
&c., that have had nothing in the shape of glasses, more 
than the glass sash, and have never seen a bit of 
shading. The cuttings stand fully two feet from the 
glass at the back, and some sixteen inches in front; 
and if the sun should continue strong, the cuttings and 
walls are dewed several times a-day with water from a 
syringe, the sun thus getting something else to eva¬ 
porate instead of the juices of the cuttings. I have 
frequently thus dewed fifty lights with less than a 
garden pail of water, and yet every leaf was damped, 
ihe mode of doing so I have previously described. 
Then, 7thly, the size of the cutting, and the number 
of leaves, must just be in proportion to the means you 
possess for keeping the cutting healthy, and preventing 
its undue perspiration. In plants with leathery leaves, 
I have often kept all the leaves, even those at the joint 
through which the knife passed. But in the case of 
plants with softish stems, this would be apt to promote 
damping and rotting off, in which case they should be 
removed. Cuttings with large leaves also require great 
care; and all things considered, trouble is lessened 
when the cuttings are rather small, and the leaves, if 
many and large, are lessened and shortened. A few 
small, healthy, whole leaves are important for carrying 
on the necessary functions of the cuttings. 
And, lastly, cuttings at all tender or difficult will strike ' 
sooner the nearer the base comes to the drainage, and, 
better still, to the sides of the pot, as the resistance thus 
given to the swelling of the cutting causes roots to be 
produced more quickly. Hence, as a rule, a few cuttings 
round the sides of a small pot will root faster and be 
every way more sure than many cuttings across a wide 
pot, or merely inserted in a bed. 
